New Delhi
India will have to increase the production of Covid-19 vaccines in a big way if it hopes to achieve its coverage targets, Dr Randeep Guleria, the AIIMS chief has said. It must complement this with a comprehensive strategy for procurement of doses from abroad, he said.
“India hopes to vaccinate one crore people daily by the end of July. India needs to ramp up production and get as many vaccines as it can from abroad,” Dr Guleria told NDTV. He emphasised the need for a ‘holistic solution’ to vaccine procurement, citing the manufacturers’ preference for dealing with a single authority instead of multiple ones.
Referring to the need to focus the vaccination drive on pregnant women, Dr Guleria said, “Pregnant women have a high morbidity and mortality, so we should vaccinate them quickly.” He said, going by global data, the benefits of vaccines far outweigh their negative effects as far as this segment is concerned.
“Covaxin is an inactivated virus vaccine which is similar to the flu vaccine, thus it should be safe for pregnant women,” he said.
‘Universal vaccination need of hour to save humanity’
Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi has said it is the need of the hour to save humanity by way of universal vaccination against the coronavirus because no one would be safe if some people are left out. Krishnamoorthi, who recently introduced a legislation in the US House of Representatives seeking to expand American aid to the virus-hit countries like India, was speaking at a webinar organised by the RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch on Friday. “It’s the need of the hour to save humanity by way of universal vaccination, which means vaccination to all people in the globe because if some people are left, no one would be safe.”
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi | File Image
Modi govt to blame for deaths: Priyanka
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday blamed the Modi government for people dying in hospitals gasping for air and families watched helplessly as their loved ones breathed their last without access to the basic medical facility of oxygen.
In her daily series of asking questions as to who is responsible for the Covid mess in the country, she asked who created this artificial shortage of oxygen. She said the Modi government’s own Empowered Group-VI warned of an impending oxygen shortage in April 2020 over a year ago, but the government ignored this warning.
Instead, it increased the oxygen exports by over 700% in 2020, a pandemic year and most of this supply went to Bangladesh, Priyanka underlined.
—Our Bureau
